UDR Major Ivan Toombs, shot dead by the IRA in 1981, receives posthumous Elizabeth Emblem honour - son remembers 'Ulsterman who loved his community'

But, as Paul Toombs now ruefully puts it, that’s also what got his father murdered.

Ivan was at work a Customs post at Warrenpoint Harbour on January 16, 1981, when two IRA killers wearing motorcycle helmets burst into his office. Pulling handguns, they opened fire at point blank range, hitting him twice in the abdomen and, fatally, four times in the head.

A married father of five, it was later revealed he’d been set up by a co-worker, IRA man Eamon Collins; although he was never convicted, Collins wrote about the murder in his memoirs and in 1999 was himself slain, potentially out of revenge for revealing paramilitary secrets.

Paul, only 16 when Ivan was killed, remembers his father as an upstanding man dedicated to his family, his community and his country.

“That’s why he joined the UDR,” he says. “He saw what was happening and wanted to keep the community and the country safe. He didn’t see why anyone should have to die.

“He was a very community-focused man; he was a scout leader, played hockey and loved his sport, and was a Mason.

“There’s a famous quote, ‘all that’s necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing’. That sums up my father; he was a good man, and he knew he had to do something. That was his sense of justice, his moral integrity and his moral standing.”

Ivan still occupies a large part of Paul’s heart, and has his own legacy within the family; Paul named his own son after his father and proudly says he “sees a lot of his grandad in him”.

The Elizabeth Emblem is now proof that his life and legacy is also rewarded by the country Ivan loved so much.

“It’s now more than 40 years since he was taken from us, all those years of pain and loss,” says Paul. “This is recognition; recognition of someone who wanted to do his part for everyone in Northern Ireland, and made the ultimate sacrifice.

“We’re always aware that we are not the only ones who lost or suffered. We hope there is recognition of all the innocent lives who we lost to terrorism.”